August 13, 2009

Thanks for stopping by to check out what is going on in another day of my life. Today is Thursday and we have almost made it through another work week.

After my ritual morning protein shake, I did my shoulder and forearm workout. I am still on two sets of each exercise and four exercises per muscle group. Next week I am hoping to up the bar and do three sets of each exercise. Trying to put on a little more muscle before I start a ten week period of doing events with Dab the AIDS Bear.

Today I would like to continue the discussion about funding for Americans with HIV and AIDS. If you read my blog a few weeks ago about funding cuts in California, today is an update about activists responding to the cuts.

Several hundred AIDS activists rallied in front of San Francisco’s Civic Center on August 5 to protest Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s decision to cut $82 million in state AIDS funding, according to the Bay Area Reporter.

Schwarzenegger used his line item veto power last week to cut an additional $52 million in general funding support to AIDS programs, including eliminating state funding for HIV prevention and testing efforts. According to the article, Democratic lawmakers are looking to fight the Republican governor’s decision, which AIDS service providers fear could fuel new HIV cases and reduce health care options for those living with the virus. The cuts are an attempt to manage the state’s $24 billion deficit.

“The funding for all those organizations really helped me to get my feet back on the ground and my life together,” said Cecilia Chung, a transgender activist who was diagnosed with HIV 16 years ago. “He is cutting out people’s lives.”

California’s state Office of AIDS is planning to release a breakdown of how much funding individual programs and cities will lose.

So I am asking all of you to contact Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office and complain about the HIV/AIDS funding cuts. Lives depends on our help.

Those are my thoughts, what about yours? Drop me a line and let me know.